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Lengthen response time

The Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado want the Bureau of Land Management to add 60 days to the public comment period due to expire next week on the proposed royalties for oil shale.

We see no reason not to allow more time for smaller communities such as Rifle, Rangely, Meeker and the five counties represented by the AGNC additional time to respond to the proposal.

The BLM was in no great hurry to offer up a royalty proposal, delaying the proposal for more than a year while the agency also reduced by two-thirds the amount of land available for oil shale development.

If the BLM can take an additional year to come up with a royalty scheme, there’s no reason not to allow small communities plenty of time to consider and respond.